Side by Side Retreat

From left to right: Avani, Becca, Beth, Sam, Chelsea, Grant, Ben, Sara, and Heather!

Spirits were high and the soup pot full as we met for a weekend retreat to plan our upcoming Summer 2022 Side by Side program. Graduate students from both Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (Sara Garcia, Molly McDermott, and Heather Kenny) as well as Theatre and Performance Studies (Sam Collier and Ben Stasny) joined forces with NSF Post-Bac student, Avani Fachon, and undergraduate Dance and Chemistry student, Grant Gonzalez, to work with project leads, Rebecca (Becca) Safran (Professor EBIO), Beth Osnes (Professor THDN), and Chelsea Hackett (Executive Director of SPEAK). We shared our goals and aspirations for what we hoped to achieve with our youth participants to support them in fostering a feeling of belonging within STEM fields, as a part of the natural world, and as a part of a community united to co-create a survivable and thrive-able climate future. Our shared vision that brings our disciplines side by side was expressed and celebrated. Much work lies ahead in recruiting youth participants and final planning, but our anticipation and dedication is ready.